Sealy Cemetery

The railroad town kept adding lines after the cemetery opened: the Missouri, Kansas and Texas ran a spur through Sealy in 1895, and the Cane Belt Railroad completed a third road six years later. The Sealy School had 200 pupils in 1918. The population dipped to about 1,850 in 1943 and then rose steadily, to about 2,328 in 1961 and 3,875 in 1982, when the town had ten churches, a hospital, a public library, a livestock auction and a weekly, the Sealy News. By 2000 Sealy counted 5,248 people.

What the plaque says

Sealy Cemetery In 1879 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company agent George Sealy purchased 11,635 acres at this location from the township of San Felipe de Austin for the purpose of establishing a railroad depot. The village of Sealy soon developed around the depot and on July 5, 1883, it recorded its first burial here, that of the infant Annie Fowlkes. Families that settled in Sealy purchased cemetery plots directly from the railroad until the company donated the land to cemetery trustees C.H. Ruff, R.P. Josey, and John Hackbarth in 1887. The Sealy Cemetery Association was founded sometime prior to 1898 and officially chartered in 1924. The laides of the cemetery society, organized in 1904, helped the association cultivate community support to upgrade and maintain the cemetery. Two notable society members, Mrs. J.W. (Vera) Ripple and Mrs. Paul (Mahala) Hackbarth helped organize a Christmas bazaar fundraising event in the 1930's that developed into an important annual social affair in the community. Among the more than 2,400 grave sites are those of many of Sealy's early residents. The cemetery boasts a variety of gravestones and statuary and includes two mausoleums. (1993)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Sealy — 0.4 mi
• Haynes Mattress Factory — 0.4 mi
• Citizens State Bank — 0.5 mi
• Frydek Catholic Cemetery — 4.0 mi